I was approached by Chris (Saeto) to do a costume set with them based on the video game, CastleVania. I was already committed to two other costume sets this year, but Cornell (the werewolf) seemed like a straightforward enough costume that I thought I could make him and still stay sane making the other two costume sets. The best laid plans...
Cornell was more complex than I thought he would be: I spent a great deal of time sculpting the muscle suit because I had to re-create his boney-muscley figure -and- hide my gut. I'm starting to realize that there is no such thing as a "standard" musclesuit when it comes to recreating characters.
His expression also needed to accomplish two things: he was a tragic figure who protected a child and he needed to be enraged and fierce, both in the same skit. I gave his a double-expression by doing two things: his face is assymetrical: one side shows a tragic expression; the other is more fierce. I also carefully sculpted the face so that from some angles he looked sadder and from other angles he looked more angry. A big challenge but this was the part I loved constructing.
I thought that not having animal-legs would help, but I just ended up spending that extra time on the musclesuit and face. Thank goodness for little favors-- he doesn't have a tail!
Lynette-- my partner in crime-- did the pants and corset. The latter is made out of leather covered with stretch vinyl and she did a fantastic job on this. I had been stumped as to how to approach this part of the costume and she plugged away at it for four hours and just made it (did I mention that she owns me, skill-wise?).